HCE received a lot of high-quality submissions for The Green Issue – sadly, too many to fit inside the magazine! So we offered some writers and artists who’d sent in work the chance to be published here on the website. Keep an eye on our social media for more great work like this, in the run-up to the release of The Green Issue…
johnnie b. baker
The Green Light
We sat on the patio of a bar
having a beer, seven months
since you gave up without trying.
Sometimes I have moved on,
sometimes I haven’t.
Sometimes the things I do to get me to move on only serve to reinforce the idea I haven’t.
The string of green lights lining the patio fence behind you was
the only light.
You had your hair up, and
the neon green blackened by the dark night
shone off your neck, creating a colour
that I had never seen before.
The shadows danced on your face
as you wrinkled your eyes,
smiled,
looked down in thought.
And all I could think was,
oh shit.
johnnie b. baker is the editor and publisher of Budget Press. He splits time between Washington DC and San Diego.